Hello everyone, how are you doing? Chapter 12 is up, I hope you enjoy it.
Thanks a lot again for keeping up with the story, I love you all.
Ruby was the first one to hear it. The unholy scream of Grimm, piercing the woods, growing louder by the minute. They were near the western perimeter, performing their third sweep of the village grounds, along with Ray Melon.
"Yang!" Ruby picked her scroll, sending a code red to Weiss and Blake. Ember Celica cocked in place right next to her.
In the dark forest away from them, red gleaming eyes, dozens of them, appeared, glistering through the thick canopies.
"How…" the tall boy whispered behind them "Grimm never get close to the village! Did the Altar abandon us?"
"Who cares?" Yang shot him a glare. "Raise the alarm and tell everyone to grab weapons! We are under attack!" Meanwhile, Ruby had drawn Crescent Rose and loaded a heavy impact bullet magazine.
"Go! We will cover you!" she shouted just as the four creatures burst out of the tree line.
Split into two pairs, the Ghouls ran towards the village. Not showing any of the previous night's stealth and subtlety, they charged straight ahead towards the two huntresses.
Ruby and Yang opened fire. A rain of missiles and explosions rattled the creatures, totally annihilating their bodies- or at least that's what should have happened.
Reforming at an alarmingly faster rate, they pounced on them. Yang shot at the first, blowing it up, and used the force from her weapon to propel backwards, avoiding the second.
The creature bit towards her, but, unlike yesterday, she was on full alert. She brought up her knee on its jaw, thrashing it back and before it could react properly she slammed its head's both sides with her fists, crashing its skull and tossing its body on its comrade, throwing both of them away.
Ruby didn't even try to slice them. If what Blake had told her was any indication, it would be a waste of footwork and movement. Instead, she burst around them, surrounding them in a field of roses as her feet literally danced between their cuts and slices.
"Burst!" Yang's shout was returned by a smile, and the nimble huntress vanished away from the attackers before a pair of missiles blew them up.
Ruby gracefully landed next to Yang, raising an eyebrow as all four of their enemies started reform once more, not even a single trace of the damage inflicted on them remaining.
"This is so weird" she whispered. "I know. I am actually kinda pissed right now." Ruby raised an eyebrow "switch to defense, Yang. There is no way they don't have a weakness. We just have to find it."
"Roger" the blonde assumed a boxing stance, focusing her mind on avoiding the incoming blows.
Ruby jumped back to gain momentum and unfurled her scythe form, just as all four of them ran towards her sister ignoring the red girl. "Iron Flower!"
A claw shot at her stomach- Yang punched it away. The second creature bit at her metal arm and she ignored it, instead using her body movement to thrash it on the third one that was aiming to her head.
The one in the back lunged at her neck, exploiting her being occupied with the others, before an invisible blade severed its head, rose petals bursting away.
The attack pressed on, with all four creatures aiming at Yang, trying to slice and bite her.
The blonde jumped and sidestepped around the same place, continuously kicking, absorbing attacks and thrashing two or three of them, a hurricane of blades, cuts and slices severing any limb or jaw that managed to pass by the boxer's defense.
The dance of punches, kicks, slashes and hungry attacks continued for quite a few minutes, enough for both huntresses to hear the village alarm screaming through the night sky.
Ruby smiled- at least their first objective had been achieved. "Disengage, Yang!" the brawler didn't even waste a single moment, shooting on her legs as her sister grabbed her and bust both of them away in a moving spiral of red and gold.
They rolled on the snow and jumped back on their feet a few meters away from the creatures, which once again used the black mist to reform. "Persistent bastards…" she spat on the ground.
"Are you ok?" "Got a few scratches here and there" she eyed their enemies, slowly and more carefully opening wide, trying to surround them. It looks like they are adapting too. I would be interested in them if I wasn't so damn angry right now.
"Oh well" she narrowed her eyes and focused her aura on her left arm, activating her semblance, making it light in a golden blaze. The things stopped their slow advance, taking in the new power emanating from her.
"They even react to semblances; I am officially impressed." Behind her, Ruby took her stance once more, but waited. What was going to happen next would put these Grimm's resilience to test.
One of the things Ruby hated about fame and being in the spotlight, was how many wrong assumptions people made about them as huntresses.
Especially, when Yang was concerned, people used to see a fiery, powerful blonde that annihilated every enemy by merely overpowering them- a juggernaut of aura that simply pummeled all resistance.
They didn't know how much her sister had worked on honing her power and combat skills, even after the end of the War. Weiss and Ren had been personally tutoring her on a constant basis.
The result; right now, Yang Xiao Long was among the best huntsmen in Remnant in terms of aura control and semblance manipulation.
The Ghouls rushed towards her, making Yang's muscles tense. Ruby stormed towards the two of them, forming a spiral wave with her weapon.
It slammed on the enemies, failing to cause any sort of severe damage, but keeping them away from her sister as the other two flanked her.
Using her metal arm to divert the right one's claws, Yang jumped around the left one's body. It turned around to bite her, but the woman sent a semblance-powered left-hand uppercut, focusing all her power on a single point.
Her golden fist passed through the creature's skull, burning its flesh and melting its bones. Its smoking corpse fell on the ground, as the other one stormed through the mist on her.
Yang used her knee to block the claws and, ignoring the pain from its slash, brought down her left fist on its spine, breaking its neck and sending its head roll on the ground, before turning into smoke as well.
She jumped back, ready to intercept their attacks but, to her total surprise, both smoking Grimm didn't stand up. Instead, their bodies slowly evaporated, before disappearing in the snowy air.
Ruby's silver eyes lit up in satisfaction, as she screamed "Golden Petals!" before storming towards the other two.
Increasing her own speed to its maximum, she sliced around the two Grimm in immense speed, cutting off limbs and heads with deadly precision. Picking up speed, Ruby drew a small-sized air dust crystal and tossed it between the two reforming enemies.
The burst of air engulfed the creatures, but the reaper didn't mind. Using her own speed and the force from the air dust, she ran around them.
A small tornado of red was formed by the combined powers of dust and semblance. It picked snow and Grimm off the ground, swirling with immense power "Incoming!" and sending them towards the waiting arm of her sister.
Yang's powerful punch literally blast off the two Ghouls, evaporating all snow as Ruby landed behind her, cape fluttering and hair messed all around from the after effects of the dust crystal.
To both huntresses' satisfaction, the Grimm followed their kin, disappearing completely before them.
Both girls turned around to the forest, only to see the red eyes slowly vanishing back to the night. They waited for a few minutes to confirm no more enemies would appear and then let out a relieved breath.
"You have become so good with dust" Yang high-fived Ruby "Weiss will be so proud of you." "She will be proud of both of us" Ruby merrily giggled.
"So what, they just needed to get hit harder?" "I don't know. I mean, I did hit them pretty hard with Crescent Rose a few times." Yang sighed "sis we both know-"
A horrible screech cut Yang's reply. A mixture of pain, hunger and mad rage, that froze the blood in both seasoned huntresses' veins. And then, screaming was heard.
But it was not the eerie screams of Grimm, no; it was something both sisters knew very well. It was the horrified, pained screaming of people suffering.
"Let's go!" Ruby said before both of them ran towards the village.
-0—
Grimm are always around waiting to eat you.
That was the case for every human living outside the main cities of Remnant. Every single establishment, no matter how small, had to abide to one single rule.
Be strong enough to fight them off or you will die.
That way of living had shaped most of the surviving communities into ones capable of dealing with emergencies like a Grimm attack in the best way possible.
The population of Yugure, however, mostly formed by city people who had moved in the area after the end of the War, lacked that valuable experience.
So, when the alarm sounded through the village, panic and chaos followed. Families ran out in the road, with women and children screaming; the Mayor and his men's plead and cries lost in the panic.
Most of them were highly religious individuals and soon enough the cries 'to the church!' spread all over the place.
Avoiding the Mayor's men and not being aware that the Rose- Xiao Long sisters had the ambush in total control, a huge wave of people entered the sacred ground.
Ignoring the pleads of the ones who failed to get inside, they started to barricade the door just as the pristine white altar broke and Nyctos, youngest of the Eldergrimm, rose from his prison.
The lucky citizens who were left outside started running away as the dying screams and horrified shouts filled the interior of the church.
The doors opened and the few survivors joined them, as the menacing figure rushed by, covered in black mist. It flew past them and landed on the churchyard's gate, allowing all of them to take a good look at the incarnated monster.
It was human-shaped and tall, with skin so dark it would put even the deepest night to shame. A bone-mask covered its face, small red eyes looking around with a savage glee.
Its entire body was covered in a dark cloud that hugged its form like a mantle, while a pair of huge, bat-like wings made of black smoke between long white bones was in its back. Blood dripped from all its body and pieces of flesh hung from its long, spear-like claws.
Nyctos opened his jaws, the sorrowful cries of pain music to the just-awakened Grimm. It relished in seeing its weak prey falling to the ground, having accepted their natural fate; get devoured by it.
The attack came from nowhere with immense speed. A large, sharp sting speared through the night, aiming for the Eldergrimm's head. A flap of its wings sent it up to the sky, the projectile crashing at the gate.
The flying horror turned around, mist swirling along its body, as its horrifying gaze fell upon the attacker; a large, white-blue Queen Lancer was rapidly approaching the church grounds, both its riders' gazes fixed on the apex predator.
-o—
"Go away as we keep it occupied!" Weiss screamed to the mob from top of the Lancer Queen. "Evacuate the area as soon as possible!"
"What in the name of dust is that Grimm?" Blake asked from behind Weiss as they flew to intercept the monstrosity that crawled out of the church's pit.
"That's one question I can't answer" her teammate replied. "Be alert; we have no idea what abilities it may have." The faunus agreed and drew Nightfall, arming the sword with fire dust, turning the blade a deeper crimson.
The Grimm surged towards them, its left arm stretching out. Five claws shot in a similar to the Lancer Queen's sting way, forcing Weiss to maneuver around the attacks.
As the passed around the appendages, Blake whirled her sword and sliced at them, creating a whirlwind of explosions that blew them all off. But nothing had prepared her for what followed.
Reforming in an unbelievably fast rate, the claws sliced back at them. Weiss conjured a large white glyph that took the brunt of the hit, allowing the Queen to- moving with a speed that would put Ruby to shame, Nyctos rammed onto Weiss' summon.
The powerful attack of the monster tore apart the Queen, sending both huntresses to fall downwards. Without giving them space to move, it dove to annihilate its prey before they even hit the ground.
"Ice Shadow!" Weiss conjured a large array of platform glyphs surrounding the Grimm's descent, sending ice dust through every single one of them. Blake created a clone that tossed her upon one of them, using it as a foothold to propel forward.
The sound of metal clashing on claw filled the area as Blake teleported on every single platform, attacking the enemy from every single angle using her swords' special property.
Meanwhile, as soon as the faunus made contact with a glyph, Weiss released the dust allowing the brunette to teleport away and leave an ice clone behind that took the Grimm's attack, sending shards of cold energy on it.
The combined effort of both huntresses encased the monster inside a cage of slashes and frost explosions, not allowing it a single breath to defend before the pale girl gracefully stepped on the ground.
Blake teleported away and then the ex-heiress emptied Myrtenaster's ice dust reserves, sending a towering pillar of frost that impaled Nyctos in the stomach, creating a huge explosion that tore the Grimm to shreds.
Weiss panted and gasped; the strain from the lack of proper rest and the intense fight evident on her body. Blake teleported next to her and helped her stand, clearly in a better shape than the alabaster girl.
"You overdid it. Yang will chew my head off." Weiss huffed "you just followed your vice-captain's orders. I will take the full-""AGH!"
Once more feeling the dreadful sting at the back of their mind, both girls turned around- and their jaws opened wide.
The monster, fully covered in shadow, was standing there, its mist-covered arms pulling back away from their own heads!
Before they could even realize the horror, a powerful feeling of hatred surged through Weiss and Blake. Where the previous time it had been some mounting, baseless anger, this time it was a roaring rage that made both girls growl as their mind was filled with thoughts of fury.
Their arms trembled, as they mustered all their will power to not lunge at each other's throats, the Grimm mockingly hovering above them.
But then, a scream echoed in the night.
"LEAVE THEM ALONE!"
Ruby Rose burst behind the enemy Grimm, swinging her scythe with all her might, using gravity shots to put enough power to tear an Atlesian tank behind her strike.
The Grimm's eyes shone as it turned to her with unbelievable reflexes, and Ruby realized her mistake a little too late.
Time seemed to freeze for the rest of team RWBY as they saw the creature instantly bursting with wicked energy, reacting fast enough to grab Crescent Rose in its arm- and shattering Ruby's prized weapon with ease.
The monochrome pair snapped immediately out of their anger, as their horrified eyes saw the Eldergrimm grab Ruby from the neck with its powerful jaws.
Ruby felt the world spin as the Grimm shook her around and bit hard enough to annihilate her aura, before it sent her crashing towards the church graveyard with enough power to skid along the snow-covered terrain, leaving a bloody trail behind her.